This dark and brooding sequel is an absolute pain to watch.
Set twenty years after the original, The Crow: City of Angels, focuses upon
the character of Ashe (Vincent Perez), a mechanic who accidentally witnesses a murder. He
is killed, only to be raised from the dead by the Crow...brought back to seek
revenge upon those who killed him. He meets Sarah (Mia Kirshner), the young girl from
the first film, now all grown up, and she helps him seek out the members
of the evil gang who killed him. Well, if you are at all familiar with the
original film, you can see that there is nothing new here (oh, wait...he's a
mechanic, not a rock star...) The first film survived primarily on Brandon
Lee (both his abilities and the mystique about his death on the set). However,
stripped of him, the plot regurgitated in the sequel shows exactly how
lifeless and pitiful it actually is. The first film at least had some creativity
in its revenge (many of the deaths were in a "poetic justice" vein). City
of Angels wastes its originality by hitting you over the head with its blatant
symbolism, ranging from countless crow images to lingering several seconds
too long on an old JESUS SAVES sign that now reads SAVE US. The action
is pointless noise and bluster for its own sake. The films atmosphere is
borrowed from Blade Runner and countless other films of its ilk (the primary set decoration seems to be trash...even otherwise clean apartment
seem to be littered with ground debris). The dialogue is inane, and the
acting can't hope to rise above it. Die hard fans of the genre are the only
ones who might be attracted to the film at all, but this awful film isn't worth the time.
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